Frida was born in Coyoacán, Mexico, in 1907, She grew up in the Casa Azul, a beautiful to a Mexican mother and a German father. ‘Blue House’ designed by her father.
Matilde Calderón y Gonzalez Guillermo Kahlo Matilde was beautiful and elegant, (Carl Wilhelm Kahlo) but very strict, and was probably Photographer suffering from depression. Guillermo immigrated to Mexico when he was 18.
Just call me Frida!
Frida had three sisters – Matilde, Adriana and Magdalena Carmen Cristina. Her father also had two daughters Frieda Kahlo y Calderón from his frst marriage.
6 7 Frida enjoyed learning about anatomy, biology and The Accident, 17 September 1925 zoology. She wanted to study medicine and become a “I sat down at the side next to the handrail... doctor. But tragedy was about to interfere with her A moment or two later, the bus collided with a tram. plans again. It injured everyone. Me most of all...” Frida’s entire body was broken. Several people had been killed by the accident, and the doctors did not think Frida would make it.
dislocated shoulder
large cut in her tummy two broken ribs
broken pelvis
broken right leg De at h d an ced ar ound my bed at night
dislocated right foot Everyone was amazed when Frida began to recover. But her life would never be the same again. 20 But things didn’t go smoothly for long. The couple In San Francisco, Frida faced tragedy again, when her moved to San Francisco, in the USA, where Diego frst pregnancy ended. Her body had been damaged was hired to paint a mural. He loved being there, but so much in the bus accident, doctors told her she Frida felt lonely. Diego was always at parties and would probably never be able to have a baby. Frida meetings, while she found it hard to make friends. was heartbroken.
I don’t much like the gringos. They’re boring and they all have faces like unbaked rolls. Frida was pleased when Diego had to return to Mexico for work. She loved being back among the country’s wonderful sights, sounds and smells. “Americans live as They began to build a brilliant new house, but before if in an enormous long Diego returned to the USA – this time to New chicken coop York. Frida didn’t want to stay in Mexico alone, so she that is dirty and went with him. uncomfortable...... the rich live in luxury right next to Diego loved New York, but once again Frida was homelessness homesick and unhappy. She created an unflattering and poverty... collage of the city, showing everything she hated about it… ...people pretend to be something they are not...
...the only colour is my Mexican costumes...”
34 35 Diego’s next mural was in Detroit – a city of factories This time she painted like never before. Her self- and machines. It was a much poorer area of the USA, portraits showed the terrible thoughts and images but Frida and Diego found it more welcoming than swirling around in her head. She was not afraid to New York. paint her heartbreak and pain. However, while Diego painted one of his greatest Even Diego was astonished. He said, “No woman had masterpieces, Frida was recovering from losing ever put as much poetic sorrow on canvas as Frida.” another baby. In 1946, the Mexican Ministry …and Frida on the inside, of Education awarded Frida a dressed in beautiful prize for one of her paintings. clothes, sitting up and Although Frida was often in holding a banner that says a lot of pain, she came to the ‘Tree of Hope Stand Firm’. prize ceremony, and continued The painting shows that to paint. even in the most difficult In Tree of Hope she painted times, she could fnd two different versions of courage inside. herself: Frida on the outside, lying in a hospital bed at the edge of a bottomless pit…
I never lost my spirit. I always spent my time painting. Since her death, Frida has become even more famous. Today her paintings sell for millions, and copies hang in homes in Mexico and all around the world. Books and flms celebrate her life. Frida made small paintings with big themes. They show us that sadness, pain and loss are a normal part of life. But they also show how the courage, hope and passion we have inside can help us to cope, whatever life throws at us. One of Frida’s last paintings was of colourful watermelons, with her fnal message to the world – “Live life”.
58 TIMELINE
1907 1910 1914 1922 1925 1926 Magdalena Carmen Frieda The Mexican Revolution Frida catches polio and has to Frida enrols in the National On 17 September, Frida is in …but a year later, the doctors Kahlo y Calderón is born in begins. It has such an impact spend the next nine months in Preparatory School, where she a bus accident in Mexico City. discover problems with her Coyoacán, Mexico, on 6 July. on young Frida that she later bed to recover. enjoys studying She is badly injured and, once spine, and she is bedbound for She is known as ‘Frida’. claims 1910 as the year of anatomy, biology again, has to spend months in another nine months. Frida her birth. and zoology. bed. She seems to make a begins to paint to pass the time, full recovery… creating her frst self-portrait.
1927 1928 1930 1931 1932 Finally free from Frida meets the The newlyweds move to The couple return to Mexico for fve months and Frida and Diego move her cast, Frida famous Mexican San Francisco. Frida is begin work on a new house, though to Detroit. joins the Mexican painter Diego unhappy and homesick. they soon return to the USA – Communist Party. Rivera. They this time to New York. Frida marry the paints My Dress Hangs There. following year.
1933 1938 1939 1940 1943 1944 Frida and Diego Frida holds her frst solo Frida paints The Two After her divorce, Frida Frida paints Self-portrait with With her health fnally return to exhibition, in New York’s Fridas, one of her paints Self-portrait with Monkeys and becomes a getting worse, Frida Mexico and move Levy Gallery, which is a most well-known Cropped Hair in response. professor of painting at the is often forced to lie in bed, into their new great success! works. Frida and She remarries Diego that Mexican School of Painting wearing a steel corset. She home. Diego divorce. same year, however, on the and Sculpture. paints The Broken Column to condition that she remains show her pain. totally independent.
1946 1953 1954 Today The Mexican Ministry of Frida holds her frst solo Frida dies on 13 July, Frida Kahlo is remembered for her Education awards Frida a exhibition in Mexico. She aged just 47. incredible self-portraits, colourful prize for Moses. She paints hosts the show from dress sense and her courage in the Tree of Hope. a bed at the centre face of adversity. of the gallery.
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